It’s OK. That can work...for a little while. And, it has to; it’s not easy to drive wholesale change across a large organization, especially when it can affect culture, technology, processes, and other things core to the fabric of your organization.

I just returned from a few days at the Shoptalk conference where 3,000 people came to explore nextgen commerce. I thought I’d share ten takeaways from ShopTalk that look at how digital is disrupting commerce. I found trends here that will likely impact all industries.

You’ve heard about the Age of the Customer. That’s a customer environment that goes beyond traditional customer care; it is about establishing a context for an enterprise’s consumer-base. As consumers equip themselves with more devices, and those devices connect to each other, consumers create a personal ecosystem, called Digital Context.1 Gone are the days when consumers are comfortable adapting to preconceived engagement protocols. Today’s the day about engaging with consumers when they want, how they want – their choice trumps the enterprise – and it results in a win-win scenario if done right. That’s Digital Context in a nutshell.

Enterprise contact centers play a key role in digital consumer engagement strategies. Enterprises need first to empower customers, and secondly to ensure that their customer care representatives are able to take up the conversations that have begun via digital channels. They’ll need to understand that these conversations are no longer one-off quick fixes; they’re part of an ongoing effort to build a better and more sustainable relationship with the customer over time, like tiles that make up a larger mosaic.

The complexity of the commerce ecosystem is increasing creating greater risk that some function will create customer friction, struggle or even fail. As you build the next-gen commerce platform for your business, we believe that it is critical to embed mobile customer care across all functions and over the entire customer journey.

Are you hot for chatbots? They're certainly heating up the conversation among customer engagement executives these days. Chatbots have been around since 1994 and have matured to the point that they (maybe) can be used effectively for real business applications. And now thanks to Facebook announcements and a demo of chatbots the topic is top of mind. So how do chatbots impact your digital engagement strategy?

About this blog

We believe digital is more than a technology. It’s a lifestylethat’s transforming nearly everyone. This blog explores how the digital lifestyle changes consumer behavior, how it triggers new expectations, and why digital consumers want to engage differently. If you want to get closer to your customers, join this conversation.